What You Need to Know
I’m not going to waste your time by filling page after page with theorybased strategies, or talk endlessly about the history of affiliate marketing.
You don’t care about that and neither do I. Instead, I’m going to cut straight to the chase and tell you exactly what you need to know about affiliate marketing so that you can start making money in a matter of a few days.
When you’re just starting out, the most time you’ll spend will be in building your mailing list and fostering a relationship with those leads.
Once you have that foundation, you can set 80% of your tasks on autopilot and then focus on reviewing products that you believe in and continuing to extend your marketing funnel. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even branch out and become a product developer yourself!
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You want to know how to get started so that you’re setting yourself up for success, right?
Here’s how:
Hands down, the easiest way to get started in affiliate marketing is by piggybacking off the success of major launches.
Instead of doing all the usual legwork involved such as: building a brand, becoming an authority, developing a product, and providing endless customer support, you can forget all about that. Instead, all you have to do is build a mailing list, cultivate a relationship with that list and promote high quality products in proven markets where authority niche leaders are already developing content for you to siphon traffic from.
Here’s one thing that you need to do in order to stand out Never, ever promote a product that you wouldn’t personally use, or that you don’t believe in.
It may sound like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many new affiliate marketers focus on promoting products only because they offer a higher commission per sale. If you do this, and the product is absolute garbage, you’ll ruin all credibility with your subscribers and end up always having to rebuild. Trust me, I’ve learned the hard way.
Back when I started out in affiliate marketing in early 2011, I made every rookie mistake imaginable.
I promoted the most expensive products I could find because I knew that meant more money in my pocket even if the products kinda sucked. STUPID MOVE.
I failed to offer anything new or exciting to motivate people into purchasing through my affiliate link. I just sent them straight to the vendor’s sales page. ROOKIE MISTAKE.
Yeah, you read that right. I didn’t focus on building my own website, list or brand. Instead, I funneled traffic through my link directly to the merchant’s sales page in the hope that the traffic would convert into sales = affiliate commissions.
There was no warm up. No building a relationship with my subscribers. No developing a recognized brand of my own.
Not exactly a long-term strategy, right? Yeah, I know. I sucked!
These were the biggest and most costly mistakes I have ever made.
Listen, most the work has already been done for you, right? You don’t have to create a product. You don’t have to create a sales page. You don’t even have to provide support or worry about refunds. And most affiliate programs even offer all ad copy, banners and graphics and even email promo so you can just plug it into your system and activate with a couple of clicks.
So, why are so many affiliate marketers afraid to roll up their sleeves and put at least a little effort into building a long-term business that eventually they can set up on autopilot?
Things like:
• Building a mailing list and offering incredible content for free to motivate visitors into becoming loyal subscribers.
• Creating a simple website (WordPress takes 2 minutes to install) that offers original, in-depth product reviews where you promote products while giving visitor’s valuable intel that helps them make better purchase decisions.
• Cultivating a customer base of your own by connecting with subscribers via your mailing list, offering extended value, free content, tips and helpful advice.
• Creating or outsourcing bonus content that enhances the digital products you create so that you can encourage people to purchase higher-priced offers through your affiliate link instead of the competitor’s.
If you do these things you will absolutely outsell other affiliate marketers, and put yourself in an authority position within every niche market you choose. I promise you.
Because the truth is, if you want to make a lot of money in affiliate marketing, you can’t be afraid to do some work and to go beyond what other affiliate marketers are doing. You need to stand out. You need to give people a clear reason to listen to you so they’ll click on your links and purchase the products you recommend.
The work you do now will undoubtedly pay off in the end. Once you’re making $10k a month, you can be lazy. Now isn’t the time. Right now, you need to do the upfront work that will set you up for long-term success.
So, where should you begin? What are the absolute essential steps that you need to take to start making money while looking out for the future?
I touched on it a few minutes ago, but in the next chapter I’ll jump into the trenches with you and show you exactly where you should start.
Keep a Steady Pulse on Your Market
If you want to make a ton of money in affiliate marketing, you absolutely must be fanatical about keeping tabs on your market so you can effectively position yourself in front of your target audience long before others do.
In fact, the easiest way to make money in affiliate marketing is to have your system in place weeks before the launch ever happens.
That way, you not only position yourself in the search engines (and in front of the line with subscribers) for when the big day comes, but you're given enough time to create content, value enhancers and bonus products that will draw customers to you, rather than the competition.
When you subscribe to a JV or launch notification program, you'll receive emails and updates about upcoming product launches long before the information is made available to potential customers. In fact, many times, you'll find out about upcoming product launches long before the merchant even begins to contact their own affiliates!
If you aren’t sure where to begin, or who these developers are, you can join http://muncheye.com, which is a launch notification system that will send you emails about upcoming launches. Really cool website.
If you’re interested in business and Internet marketing products, check out http://www.JVZoo.com
You’ll need to apply for approval with each vendor, but typically it only takes a couple of hours to get approval. Then, you’ll have immediate access to their JV promotional page where you’ll be able to download swipe files, banners, ad copy, and more.
Plus, you’ll get to see their entire sales funnel and how you can earn more money through their backend offers.
There are countless other affiliate marketplaces online so run a Google search to find a few that offer products that you are interested in and then subscribe to their updates.
The sooner you know of a product launch, the more prepared you will be; it’s as simple as that. If you only start prepping your website and list within a few days of an upcoming launch you’ll struggle to generate enough traffic through your affiliate links to make it worth your while.
Instead, if you know of an upcoming launch weeks, even months ahead of time, you can set up a killer system that will maximize exposure, and of course, profits.
My Personal Action Plan
Here’s what I do with every product I plan to promote:
As soon as I find out about the product, I request a review copy. If you are just starting out, you may not have the opportunity to snag a review copy and may have to purchase it yourself. Or, if you trust the vendor or can verify his reputation for putting out solid products, you can bypass this step.
If you are able to buy a copy though, the investment will be well worth it because not only will you have personal experience with the product, but you’ll be able to create auxiliary components and bonus products around the product that will extend the value to those who purchase through your affiliate links.
You’ll also be able to start creating (or outsourcing) content that will generate traffic and help you build a targeted list of potential buyers.
I will also sometimes register a domain name around the product launch as well, especially if it’s a large-scale one. Otherwise, I funnel all my traffic to one main blog’s sub-page.
For example, if I were promoting a product called “7-Figure Affiliate”, I would set up a page on my blog so that the URL would be something like: https://themecircle.net/7-Figure-Affiliate/ (not a real link).
When registering a new domain for your affiliate based website, be sure to choose a domain for your main “hub” that is memorable. It’s not as important to have a keyword-based domain name anymore because search engines add more weight to the content on your site rather than keywords. It’s far better to register one that is easy to spell and remember.
One thing you should get comfortable doing is creating YouTube videos. They don’t have to be fancy. Just point your camera towards your face and talk to your audience about the product. Direct people to your blog where you have a killer product review for them to read through.
One guy who does this really well is an IM affiliate marketer, Brendan Mace. He has a way of keeping things simple yet motivating his audience into taking action. His videos aren’t fancy at all. In fact, they’re actually really basic, but that appeals to new marketers. You can check his YouTube channel out for examples.
Next step? Integrate your affiliate links within all forms of your content, but be honest with your audience. Tell them that yes, you will make money from their purchase.
I know what you’re probably thinking: why the hell would I tell people that I’m making money from their purchase? Won’t that deter them from purchasing because they’ll think I’m only promoting products to get paid?
Don’t underestimate the intelligence of your audience. They likely already know that you’ll make money from their purchase so by being upfront about it, you’re offering a level of transparency that other affiliates aren’t.
People will trust you. And if you do your best to only promote quality products, they’ll also thank you for referring them!
Being upfront and transparent means less resistance from your target audience and you’ll be able to cultivate a brand based on honesty and integrity.
So, consider adding a disclosure on your website and within your review content, such as: [Full Disclosure: I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]
And speaking of integrating your affiliate links within all forms of content, you’ll want to install the Pretty Links plugin into your blog if you plan to use WordPress.
It’s a neat plugin that will create clean affiliate links while also shortening them. This will make it easier for potential customers to share your links with others so rather than a long, ugly affiliate link, you can create one that is much shorter and far more memorable.
It’s honestly one of my most important tools because not only does it create shorter, attractive links but it tracks clicks and more. And best of all, the basic version is free and that’s really all you need.
Here’s the link: https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/pretty-link/
I also recommend going the distance and taking things one step further by contacting the top product developers in your niche directly to find out if they have a list specifically for affiliates. Many times, developers run internal affiliate programs that may not be publically visible so it never hurts to reach out and ask them.
You may not get a response from everyone you write to, but if you can get on the affiliate/JV mailing lists for several of the top marketers, you will be light years ahead of those who are simply mining sites like www.JVNotifyPro.com and other similar communities.
Then, when you hear about an upcoming launch that you are interested in, you want to begin gathering as much intelligence as possible.
You can do this by downloading any training tools or resources provided to you by the product owner (such as reports that will be given away during pre-launch, reviewing their sales page, checking out any available affiliate training tools, etc.)
And of course, as I’ve already mentioned, asking for a review copy or purchasing a copy on your own. The better you know a product, the more authentic your content and review will be!
Your Most Important Asset
Do you know how the super affiliates always end up in the top rankings during launches and ultimately make more money than anyone else?
They all have a responsive mailing lists of highly targeted leads that they have cultivated a relationship with.
When you have a mailing list in your affiliate marketing arsenal, you can instantly notify your customer base of the upcoming launch, get them excited about the product through personal reviews and content, “tag” them with your affiliate link, and communicate with them every step of the way before and during the product launch.
It’s the closest thing to printing money!
Email marketing is all about connecting with your target audience by offering them high quality information that is useful, relevant and engaging.
List building helps facilitate the process of converting subscribers into customers, but it does much more than that.
It helps you build important relationships with customers, while establishing a brand for quality and building your very own platform for long-term success.
It’s also a very important resource to have when you are trying to claim market share in a launch that lasts for only a limited amount of time.
Think about it: You’ll have an active audience right at your fingertips, rather than scrambling to generate traffic through your affiliate links during a live launch.
Keep in mind that most of the work involved in every affiliate campaign will be done prior to the launch day. Owning a mailing list makes this easier because it decreases your customer acquisition costs dramatically.
By the time the launch comes around, you should have communicated the value of the product to your audience, established trust with your subscribers and offered them incredible content that they could only get from you.
You’ve positioned yourself in such a way they’d be fools not to purchase through YOUR links!
And while you won’t need a big list to start making money as an affiliate, you do need a responsive, targeted list of subscribers who are interested in the type of products you plan to promote. Be careful not to throw everyone into one list.
By segmenting your lists, you will be able to tailor your emails so that they directly communicate with targeted groups of subscribers who are interested in specific information or topics.
Notice how I said topics, not products?
That’s because no one joins your list with the intention of being sold to!
People don’t want to hear from you only when you have a product to sell. You need to keep this in mind when communicating with your subscriber base.
They joined your list because you did a great job at convincing them that you are someone worth following so don’t mess that up! Always focus on helping people and you’ll always make more money.
If you have never built a mailing list before, the first thing you should do, is sign up for an autoresponder service such as www.MailChimp.com, www.Aweber.com or my favorite, www.MailerLite.com.
With autoresponder services, you can set up an unlimited number of mailing lists, each one featuring customized code that serves as your opt-in box.
Additionally, autoresponder services are often whitelisted by many of the major ISPs, so your emails will reach more inboxes and bypass more spam boxes than if you mail from your own domain.
Most autoresponder services base their price structure around the number of subscribers you have, not how many times you mail out, so you pay more only as your list grows.
Top Mailing List Providers
Here are a few mailing list services worth considering:
Autoresponder Providers
Aweber >> http://www.aweber.com
Aweber.com is one of the most popular services for internet marketers. They are relatively inexpensive, and they are highly reliable.
GetResponse >> http://www.getresponse.com
GetResponse.com is very similar to Aweber in features and pricing, but their servers can be a little slow sending messages out sometimes.
MailChimp >> http://www.mailchimp.com
Once you have a mailing list account and have generated your opt-in code, you need to build a squeeze page. This can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
You can find free templates out there that can be used, or you can sign up for a program such as www.LeadPages.net which will automate the process and give you far more control over data and customization options. www.ClickFunnels.com is also another one worth looking into if you want to streamline the entire sales process later on once you begin to sell products of your own.
Creating a Killer Squeeze Page
One thing to keep in mind when developing your squeeze page is that it should motivate visitors in the same way that a traditional sales page should, however, the actual structure of your squeeze page will be very different. With sales pages, they are typically designed to offer as much information about a particular product as possible, since the main focus is on transforming a visitor into a customer.
With a squeeze page, you aren't asking your visitor to make a decision to purchase or commit to anything other than to subscribe to your mailing list where they are rewarded with killer content and a great incentive. Keeping this offer in mind, when you develop a squeeze page, you need to have a strong focus a specific topic in your niche, and design your offer around an existing problem, need or question.
A squeeze page should have the following elements at minimum:
• A killer headline that immediately grabs attention.
• A few bullet points that highlight why they should subscribe and what they are getting out of it (the benefits).
• An opt-in box, usually generated by your autoresponder system.
• A bribe that motivates subscribers into joining the list.
You can also use video on your squeeze page to capture attention and increase opt-ins. Just make sure that your video presentation is short, direct and that it includes a call to action.
You should set up your autoresponder to deliver high quality content immediately after someone subscribes to your list.
It’s a good idea to create a short report that provides helpful information about your niche. This is known as an “incentive offer”, and it comes in many forms, including:
You could offer:
- Free Reports
- Free Tutorial Guides
- Video content
- Free or Trial Access to a Membership Program
- Articles with “Top Tips”
- Webinars
- Video tutorials
- Links to in-depth case studies or product reviews.
The key to creating a successful incentive product is in its overall relevancy and existing demand. You want to make sure that your target audience is actively searching for similar information, and that it is being sold successfully in the marketplace. If you do that, you will have little difficulty building a massive list of targeted prospects who will be eager to receive your emails and broadcasts. Next up, I want to talk to you about the easiest way I’ve ever generated traffic to a new website so that I could build a list.
This is exactly how I got my start and it changed everything for me. I think it will do the same for you too.
Review Style Blogs
One of the easiest ways to generate traffic to a new blog is by writing detailed, comprehensive and direct review-styled posts for the products you plan to promote through your affiliate campaigns.
It’s easy to see why this strategy is so effective, right?
You are reaching out to potential customers that are already on the verge of buying!
All you have to do is provide them with the reassurance they are looking for and close the deal! Essentially, you simply need to validate their decision to purchase.
Reviews need to be written so that they demonstrate to potential customers that you have personally evaluated the product, and have experience using it. They also need to come off as genuine and authentic so write in a conversational-style as though you are talking to a friend.
Make sure you refrain from promotional pitches! Instead, focus on creating informative content that addresses their concerns, highlights the pros and cons and provides in-depth insight into what the product can do for them.
Focus on the benefits rather than a list of features. Benefits will emphasize how the product will help them in some way, and that’s all buyers really care about.
Create a post that outlines that things you liked about the product as well as the things you didn’t. This will demonstrate your honesty and come off as much more genuine, rather than a glowing review that only highlights the many reasons why someone should purchase it.
The best, most successful reviews are always written from a customer’s perspective.
They're designed to communicate directly with potential customers by getting into their frame of mind, and addressing the questions and concerns that they have. This means that you need to know your market!
* What questions will they have about the product?
* What background or level of experience do they have? (Is the product truly a good fit for a beginner?)
* What are they looking for in the product?
* What problems do they have that the product could solve?
* What concerns do they likely have about purchasing the product?
When you understand your market, you will be able to create valuable content that clearly addresses their burning questions and concerns. When you do that, you lower the wall of resistance, which makes selling to your audience even easier. So, learn to speak their language.
Give people a unique perspective on the product; let them know what you truly feel about the product and whether the brand promise is fulfilled.
You never want to promote products that you haven't evaluated, or that you don't feel live up to buyer’s expectations. (I know I’m repeating myself, but I can’t stress this enough!)
Remember, every product you promote reflects your brand, and demonstrates to customers whether you have their best interests at heart, so choose products carefully.
You want to guide people towards products that will ultimately help them achieve their goals so that they will purchase through you again in the future. They’ll learn to trust you and the products you recommend.
One way that I create my reviews is by directly comparing one product (the one I want to promote) against another similar product. I give a brief run down on both products while highlights the benefits and advantages that product #1 has over product #2.
This works well because chances are your visitor has already been debating between more than one product in the industry, so by comparing the two products, you are helping them make a sound decision and providing much-needed reassurance.
Choosing Domain Names:
When registering domain names that are for the sole purpose of writing reviews around a specific product, you want your domain to be keyword based whenever possible.
Examples:
ProductNameReview.com
ProductNameTruth.com
ProductNameBonus.com
And don't overlook domains with hyphens that break up the keywords, such as:
Product-Name-Review.com
Product-Name-Bonuses.com
When registering domain names, I recommend the following free tool:
http://www.InstantDomainSearch.com
Instant Domain Search makes it easy to find hot, keyword driven domain names and reveals whether a domain is available as you type in characters. Very useful!
As your blog begins to grow, you will want to systematically tweak and test out different headlines for your posts as well as different content formats to maximize conversion rates.
I highly recommend setting up an account with Google Analytics so that you can monitor conversion tracking, traffic sources, and even keywords that are converting better than others.
You can create a free account at:
http://www.google.com/analytics/
And install a free WordPress plugin that makes it easy to begin collecting data.
Follow the steps I’ve outlined for you, and add your own unique touch. The more effort you put into developing a solid action plan, the easier it will be for you to gain more ground in less time.
Making Sure They Buy Through Your Links
Affiliate marketing is a competitive industry. There are often hundreds of other affiliates targeting the same audience. So, how can you stand out and increase the odds that potential buyers will click on YOUR links to purchase and not someone else’s?
This is where the power of bonus offers comes into play.
Think about this scenario for a moment, if you will. You’re interested in building a website and are currently evaluating a couple different web development companies. One guy is offering to set up your entire website for $599 and the other for the same price.
Both are skilled designers who are more than capable of getting the job done. And they both tell you that they can get the job done within a week.
So, how do you choose who to go with?
What if designer #1 offered to give you a video tutorial that guided you every step of the way to managing your website once he’s designed it for you? This incredible help would be priceless, right? After all, you’re new at running a website and you know that the design is only the foundation of it. You then need to learn how to update as needed and further customize as your business grows.
This “bonus” tutorial would likely sway you into choosing designer #1 over #2. And it didn’t take a lot of this guy’s time to create a quick video tutorial for you.
That’s the power of going the extra mile and offering someone more bang for their buck!
In affiliate marketing, this strategy is used all the time. Affiliates will package up auxiliary components that are relevant to the products they are promoting, and then present it to potential customers as a way of standing apart from other marketers.
And there is no shortage of bonus content and products you can create for virtually any affiliate campaign.
Don’t believe me?
If you are promoting a product in the online business niche that includes an ebook, videos and a lesson plan on how to become a successful blogger.
All you have to do is quickly evaluate the product you are interested in promoting and look at what’s missing. Find a weakness in the product that you could strengthen by creating bonus items that you give to those who purchase through your affiliate links.
In this example, I’d create the things that new bloggers need the most, such as:
• A 10-pack of pre-written blog posts.
• A checklist of top WordPress plugins
• An overview sheet outlining the top free WordPress theme
Are you starting to see the power in creating bonus products that add value to a product that someone is already interested in purchasing?
You are giving them more, at no extra cost. Their only requirement is to purchase through your affiliate link.
So, how can you set up and manage bonus offers like this? You could manually set up download pages and track affiliates, or you could make it easier and use a product like www.ConversionGorilla.com that simplifies the entire process.
Not only can you create landing and review pages but you can set up bonus products for just about any type of offer. Plus, they even give you some free bonus packages that you can slap your name on and use immediately.
Jumpstart Your Traffic
So, you now know what you need to do to get started. Set up a WordPress blog, write some review-style posts around products you plan to promote and start building a squeeze page and mailing list.
But, none of that really matters without traffic right?
This is the one thing that’s usually missing in most affiliate marketing guides. People will tell you how you’ll make money, but they don’t tell you how to actually get your business off the ground.
Well, this isn’t one of those guides. 😉
Here are a few quick, easily and FREE methods of generating fresh, targeted traffic to your blog and your squeeze page:
We are going to concentrate on getting traffic mostly from social media, because these sites have a low barrier to entry, and you don’t have to spend any money to make use of them.
Sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook have millions upon millions of active users, many of whom are interested in pretty much any niche you can think of. In fact, these sites make it exceptionally easy to reach those users through various methods such as keywords, hashtags, and groups.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to build a presence on every social media site online. Instead, focus on the ones where the majority of your target audience can be found.
In this guide, we are going to concentrate our efforts on 3 main social media sites for now:
Facebook Marketing
There are many ways different ways of driving traffic to your website with Facebook, but I’m going to keep it simple and focus only on the most affordable, low-risk options in this guide.
For now, let’s focus on the fastest and easiest ways to get started so you can cut your teeth on their advertising platform and start to drive traffic to your niche authority website, starting with creating a domain based sponsored story and boosting a post.
When people share your content on Facebook you can easily turn that post into a sponsored story in order to increase the reach of your content and to generate traffic to your niche authority blog.
This works well because it operates as social proof. It’s not an ad you created by someone else’s post who shared your content.
You are essentially boosting the exposure it receives. In fact, the only way anyone can tell that it’s a paid ad/boost is with the “Sponsored Ad” notice at the very bottom corner.
You can advertise specific Facebook activities such as individual posts (a Sponsored post story), likes of your Page (Sponsored like story), or check-ins with Facebook Places (Sponsored check-in story).
Go to your Insights Dashboard here: http://www.facebook.com/insights/ to get started.
Enter in your website’s domain and connect it to your personal Facebook profile, or your Facebook page and create your ad. You can set a daily or maximum budget and once approved, it’ll go live!
Boosted Posts
You can also boost a post which will often provide you with more flexibility and control. Simply write a post (or choose an existing one on your page) and click the blue “Boost” button beneath it.
Set your budget, your target audience and the date range for when the boost should happen. Boosted ads typically get approved very quickly.
You should only ever boost your own content while focusing on boosting the posts that are likely going to gain the most traction. You don’t have to boost every single post on your page!
Also, Facebook enforces a 20% text rule that means that if your image has too much text it’s likely to be rejected.
You can use Facebook’s grid tool to determine if your ad contains too much text and is likely to be turned down: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay
Note that you can’t edit the image or video used in a boosted post after it goes live. If you wish to do this, you’ll have to end the campaign and create a new post and boost it. You can however edit the duration and the budget.
And finally, when you boost a post you’ll have the option to choose between “People who like your page and their friends”, or “People you choose through targeting”.
I typically choose the second option so that I can create targeted ads that are more likely to reach people who will be interested in my content.
Keep an eye on your boosted post’s overall engagement to see whether it’s reaching your target audience or not.
Pinterest Marketing
Pinterest is, by far, one of the most critical and effective marketing tools in just about any niche market you can think of.
Think your niche won’t work on Pinterest because the audience is male?
WRONG.
While it’s true that about 81% of Pinterest users are female, there are 150 million active users each month, which means about 28,500,000 men use the site each month. That’s a huge number to ignore!
Additionally, 40% of new users are male, so the gap between the genders is lessening every day.
Think your niche won’t work because of their age?
WRONG AGAIN.
Pinterest has a nice spread among most age groups. About 67% of users are under age 40, which leaves millions of users over the age of 40, as well!
Not only that, but Pinterest users are widely known for being buyers, not just browsers. A whopping 93% of active users use the site to plan purchases, and 87% bought something because of Pinterest!
Using Pinterest is simple. You sign up for an account, fill out your profile, and start pinning!
It’s important to grow your following on Pinterest, as your pins will be seen by more people if you have a larger number of followers to re-pin your content.
There are a few things you can do to increase your following:
• Use keywords in your username. The earlier those keywords appear in your username, the more effective they will be. For example, if your blog is titled BasketMaven.com you could make your username something like “Basket Weaving | BasketMaven.com”.
• Your boards should all be titled for keywords, as well. Don’t give your boards cute names or bland names. Name them things such as “Basket Weaving Tutorials”, “Basket Weaving Tips”, “Basket Weaving Books”, and “Basket Weaving Supplies”. People who may not necessarily follow your entire Pinterest account might follow your individual boards, so it’s important to be sure they are found.
• Don’t forget to give your boards a description! As with the username, important keywords should appear early, but make the description make sense and entice people to subscribe. Don’t just stuff it full of keywords!
• When you create pins, be sure to fill out the description field. As with board descriptions, put your most important keywords early in the description, and make sure the description makes sense so people click!
• Make sure all the images you pin are taller than they are wide. If you look at Pinterest, you will see the images that stand out the most are tall, colorful, and have text on them. Try to emulate the types of images you see in your niche that get a lot of re-pins.
• Pin on a regular basis. The best way to get more followers is to pin often, and at different times of the day so you can reach people in many time zones.
• Don’t pin too much at once, though. Five pins at a time, spread 3-5 hours apart is a good rate.
• Don’t pin ONLY your own content. Be sure you’re pinning other people’s content, and only pin content that has a lot of re-pins by others already because it’s been proven to be pin-worthy.
• Your pins will be shown more often if your pins get a lot of re-pins, so go through and delete anything you pin that isn’t re-pinned much. A single pin that doesn’t get any re-pins can harm your entire account, making all your content get seen less.
Instagram Marketing
Instagram makes it easy to build a following and drive traffic to your website while building a recognized brand.
With Instagram, marketers have immediate access to an ever-growing audience of users (over 100 million at the time of this writing!). Even big brands like Starbucks and Chanel have taken advantage of Instagram’s incredible popularity and the outreach it provides.
Here are a few quick tips on creating an effective marketing strategy:
• Add your website’s URL in your bio along with relevant hashtags. You cannot have links anywhere else on Instagram, so it’s critical to put it in your bio!
• Choose a general category for your photos such as humor, emotional, culture, artsy, etc.
• Use images to tell a story making sure it matches the theme and overall scope of your niche blog. You can also post images of your products and products you recommend.
• Whenever you post a new photo that relates to specific content on your site, be sure to update the URL in your profile and tell viewers to check out the link on your bio page.
• Synchronize your Instagram so that it automatically updates your other social media accounts, such as Twitter and Facebook.
• Create a photo/image series, based around a specific theme that ties into your niche market.
• Use relevant, branded hashtags within every post and include the same ones in your bio/profile. Including 5-10 hashtags will get you more profile and image views.
• Create contests and giveaways that engage your audience and maximize your exposure.
• Use Statigram, at https://pro.iconosquare.com/, to keep a pulse on key metrics to better understand your audience and what posts are getting more exposure.
Now, get to work!
To your success,
Affiliate Networks
To help you get familiar with the popular affiliate networks currently available online, here is a quick overview of a handful of the ones most widely used:
JVZoo http://www.JVZoo.com
Mostly Internet marketing related products. Very easy to set up an account and browse potential products. Instant Paypal payments offered.
Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate) http://www.CommissionJunction.com
Otherwise known as “CJ.com”, Commission Junction has been around for many years and is known to pay on time and provide unbeatable support.
They feature hundreds of merchants across the board and regardless of the niche market or subject you are interested in promoting, they are bound to have a few lucrative choices from within their directory.
Share A Sale http://www.ShareASale.com
ShareASale handles all payments on behalf of the merchants and offers thousands of products to promote. It’s a great place to start.
Rakuten Marketing https://www.rakutenmarketing.com/affiliate
Rakuten Marketing is an ever-growing affiliate marketplace and with it comes a great variety of lucrative and high paying affiliate opportunities.
ClickBank http://www.ClickBank.com
ClickBank is an internet retailer of top quality lifestyle products allowing manufacturers to sell their products & digital marketers to promote them. They’ve been online for more than 17 years.
Amazon Affiliate Program https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/welcome
The affiliate program is called “Amazon Associates Program”. Easy to get started, very intuitive and unlimited products to promote ranging from low-end to very high cost: